


fate is not ill-fated

by jennycaakes



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 17:43:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9082798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jennycaakes/pseuds/jennycaakes
Summary: Gale doesn't want his soulmate. Not at all. Not one little bit.





	1. Chapter 1

For as long as Gale could remember he’d had a bandage around his arm. Ever since he was little it was there, wrapped around his left forearm where everyone else’s _soulmate’s_  first words to them were. “It’s because I don’t have one,” Gale said one night to his parents as they sat by the fire. Rory had just been born, swaddled in his mother’s arms. Gale had seen the dark marking on his baby brother’s arm. _He_  had a soulmate. “Right? So you keep it covered for me?”

“Of course you have one,” Asher Hawthorne had said to his son. “But you can’t look at it until you’re older.”

“How much older?” Gale asked. “Is it a bad word?”

“Something like that,” Asher murmured, patting his son on the shoulder. “You’ll understand one day.”

And years later, Gale finally did understand. It was three days after the mine collapse that killed his father, two after the ceremony thanking the families for the bravery of those who had died. At 14 years old Gale raced out of his house for some fresh air, selfishly needing a break from his teary eyed pregnant mother, his rambunctious siblings that didn’t fully understand what had happened.

He ended up in the meadow staring at the fence, debating crossing over, when instead he just picked at the wrapping on his arm. Frustration ebbed through him and he finally got the bandages off, for the first time finally seeing the tiny black print across his left forearm.

 _I’m sorry your dad died in the mine collapse_.

Gale stared for a long time at the print before pushing himself to his feet, leaving the tattered bandage on the ground, and sprinting home. He didn’t mean for his voice to sound so angry as he snapped at his mother, “You knew?”

Hazelle looked at him with worried eyes as Gale held up his arm. “Gale–”

“You knew Pop was gonna die this _whole time_?” he shouted. Gale paced the small room in front of her, ignoring the way the kids peeked in at him from the living room. “And you hid it from me! You _hid it_  from me, Ma!” 

“We didn’t want to worry you,” she rasped. “Soul–your soulmate is supposed to bring you _joy_ , Gale not–”

“No, fuck no!”

“Gale!” Hazelle cut him off then. She shook her head with fire in her eyes. “You don’t get to talk to me like that,” she growled. “Was it wrong to keep it from you? Yes. Your father and I _both_  knew that! But what good would it have done for you to know!” 

Gale was still heaving for air. It wouldn’t have done any good, he knew that. But maybe his father could’ve found a new job, maybe they could’ve warned someone. He took a deep breath and shook his head, pacing away from his mother.

“I don’t want it,” Gale said. Hazelle waited for him to elaborate. “This–this soulmate, I don’t want her.” He started off toward the backroom where everyone’s mattresses were piled. “And I’m still mad that you didn’t tell me.” 

That was the end of that conversation.

* * *

And it was true, Gale didn’t want her. His mother was right, a soulmate is supposed to be a blessing, bring good news, bring _light_ , but Gale’s only brought death. Gale’s whoever she was brought the end of his world. His father, steady and strong and brave. Gone. 

And it was her fault.

But he couldn’t stop from wondering. He’d spoken to so many different families at the ceremony, so many girls roughly the same age as him. The words had become hazy, there was a point in which Gale stopped listening. But it was best that way, that he never knew who she was. 

Gale moved on. He stood tall and he braved the woods. He met Katniss, who’d also lost her dad. Their words didn’t match up but he couldn’t help but find her pretty. He hoped she found better peace with her soulmate than he did, and if not at least he’d still be around. Maybe he had a chance with _her_. 

They hunted together, caught rabbits and shot squirrels. Gale mastered a snare. And one day Katniss stopped him. “I have a place we can deliver to,” she said. Gale gave her a look and Katniss stood tall. “You’re not going to like it.”

And that was how he ended up on the back porch of Mayor Undersee’s mansion. Katniss was the one who knocked, and just as planned Madge Undersee, the mayor’s daughter, answered the door. The blonde was beautiful in a way that made it hard for him to breathe. He’d seen her before, sure, but never been so close. She had freckles that danced over her nose, bright golden hair that made him think of perfect summer days, a nervous smile that almost made Gale stop feeling paranoid. 

“As promised,” Madge said as the three of them made their trades.

Gale stopped her before she went inside. He wasn’t about to let her leave without reminding them how dangerous this trade was – that she was the mayor’s daughter with more power than Gale could ever hope to have.

“If we die,” he started, “it’s on you.” 

Madge froze. Her eyes went wide as she looked between the two of them. “What’s wrong?” Katniss asked quickly.

Unable to speak Madge looked back at Gale, awkwardly balancing the basket of strawberries against her chest and holding up her left forearm for them to see. 

 _If we die, it’s on you_. 

Gale looked over at Katniss who seemed to be just as stunned, then back to Madge who was looking more pale than before. Gale swallowed thickly and considered walking away but instead he shook his head. 

“They don’t match,” he told her. Quickly he shoved up his sleeve to show her his own tattoo. It still stung to look at. _I’m sorry your dad died in the mine collapse_. “They don’t match,” he said again as her eyes studied the words.

“I was at the ceremony,” Madge said, her eyes still trained on his forearm. “I apologized to everyone, Gale.” Finally she looked back up at him, her eyes full of panic. “I remember you,” she told him.

Gale thought hard for a moment before the blonde came back into his memory. Small and gentle, following her father around from family to family as he gave his condolences. She spoke to the kids in every family, sorry plastered to her face. He remembered her too. He’d been too tired at the time to say anything back.

 _Fuck_.


	2. Chapter 2

Gale wanted nothing to do with her. The second he found out Madge was his soulmate he spun on his heel and marched down her back porch. He wanted _absolutely nothing_ to do with her. 

It was like the universe was playing a cruel joke on him. First the tattoo on his arms, the _first words_  his soulmate said to him foretold his father’s death. _I’m sorry your dad died in the mine collapse._ And secondly, the _mayor’s daughter_? It had to be a fucking joke.

So he walked away from her. And he kept his distance. And it worked for literally years, because Madge seemed to understand he wanted nothing to do with her and didn’t make any forward efforts to change that. In fact, he let Katniss make trades with the mayor’s family all on her own and never even looked in Madge’s direction. _Because he didn’t want her_. 

But then Katniss was Reaped into the Hunger Games. And she approached him.

“We’re both friends with Katniss,” Madge said simply. It was the first time they’d spoken since Gale was 15 years old on her back porch with a basket of strawberries, the first thing she’d said to him since she admitted to giving her condolences at the ceremony where they honored his family. “We can support her together.”

Gale looked at the blonde with his jaw clenched when his eyes caught on _her_  tattoo. _If we die, it’s on you_. He lifted his gaze back to her and found her waiting patiently for a response.

“No,” Gale answered, once again leaving her without any explanation as to why. 

Madge looked frustrated then but Gale couldn’t bring himself to care. They watched the Games separately, cheering for Katniss separately, rooting for her separately. It wasn’t until Katniss and Peeta were both declared winners of the Hunger Games did Madge reappear, and this time it was at his house.

The day after the win Gale had to go back to work, the mines were awful and dark and he hated them but money was money and that was his job. When he returned to the fleeting sunlight, exhausted and ready to spend time with his family, he opened the door to find Madge Undersee on his couch.

She was braiding Posy’s hair. Her delicate, callous-free fingers worked meticulously – just as his did as he made snares. Before he could get a word out Hazelle pulled him aside, out of view of his siblings and the clean blonde and into the kitchen.

“She’s staying for dinner,” Hazelle told him, an edge of sharpness to her voice. She had every right to be upset, Gale supposed, considering he hadn’t told her he’d found his soulmate. “And then you’re walking her home. I don’t want to hear anything about it.”

So Gale disappeared into the bathroom to scrub more coal dust from his skin before rejoining his family. If he was going to be forced to sit through dinner with the soulmate he didn’t want, he didn’t have to be happy about it. Hazelle didn’t want to hear him complain? Fine, he wouldn’t speak. He kept it to alternating his harsh stare between his mother and the stupid blonde who ruined his life.

But Madge remained chipper and cheerful, smiling as she talked to Gale’s siblings and answering all of Hazelle’s questions with positive responses and was all around a decent human being. It only made Gale angrier. She wasn’t allowed to be likable because he was supposed to hate her. 

“So what’s that on your arm?” Hazelle asked finally as dinner was coming to a close. “What’s the first thing Gale said to you?”

“Oh,” Madge laughed a little and held up her forearm. “It says _if we die, it’s on you_.” Hazelle arched an eyebrow. “He thought I was going to snitch on him and Katniss when they brought me strawberries,” Madge elaborated. “But if Gale bothered to learn anything about me he’d know that I love strawberries and would _never_  risk that.” 

Gale rolled his eyes at her. “Sure,” he muttered.

“As I was growing up,” she continued, ignoring Gale and instead speaking to his mother, “I thought my soulmate was going to be, I don’t know–someone from the Hunger Games. Like I’d made an alliance with someone from another district or something.” Madge looked down at the writing on her arm and shrugged. “Or that I’d be on some sort of adventure or something.” She looked back up at Gale then. “I’m pretty happy with how it turned out though.” 

“I’m not,” Gale grumbled quickly. 

Madge looked away then, disappointment filling her face.

It wasn’t until he was walking her home did she turn to him. “You didn’t even tell your mom?” she asked. There it was again, that disappointment. “You didn’t tell your mom you’d found your soulmate?” 

“What good would it have done?” Gale snapped back. “It’s not as though we’re friends.” She stopped walking immediately and crossed her arms over her chest. Gale groaned and stopped too. “ _What_?”

“You’re not allowed to hate me,” she said. Gale furrowed his eyebrows at her, waiting for her to carry on. “You don’t know me,” Madge continued, “so you’re not allowed to hate me. In fact, fate and the universe and whatever and whoever the hell decided to put this on our arms,” she said, holding up her left forearm to show him, “is pretty sure that we _aren’t_  supposed to hate each other.”

“Have you read mine?” he shot back, stepping toward her and lifting his own forearm. “ _You foretold the death of my father_ ,” he growled. “Fourteen years before it happened, _you_  foretold the mine collapse. How many other people do you think have a tattoo that did that?” Madge held her ground and straightened her shoulders, refusing to drop their gaze. “I don’t have to like you because the universe says I do.”

“You think I could’ve controlled it?” she asked. Madge shook her head at him. “You think I chose you? Or the first words that I said? Gale,” she stepped in his direction. “If I could’ve said anything else, if there was some way for me to _change_  our first interaction, I’d do it.” She swallowed thickly. “But I can’t. And you don’t get to hate me for that.” Still, she shook her head. “You don’t even know me.”

Gale shook his head too. “I know enough,” he muttered. “I know that you have more money than my family could ever hope to have, that you live in a big house that takes care of Capitol citizens, that–”

“That I can’t control any of that?” she cut him off. “And that’s not even about _me_ , that’s just my circumstances. I can list things off about you too that you can’t control, but it doesn’t change my opinion of you.” Madge took another step closer, and now she was almost uncomfortably close. “Give me a chance,” she said softly. “Before you shoot me down again, just give me a _chance_.”

It was then that she grabbed onto his shirt, forcefully pulling him down and pressing her lips to his. Gale froze, startled by the kiss, and waited until she pulled away. It was as though a warmth was spreading through him then, like something inside of him finally clicked. He leaned away and found her looking at him.

“I know the rest of the way home,” she whispered. 

And this time, she was the one who left _him_. 


	3. Chapter 3

She shouldn’t have kissed him. Gale should’ve known to get as far away from Madge Undersee as humanly possible, that she was brave in ways he wasn’t and would’ve done something stupid like _kiss him_. He wanted nothing to do with her, nothing to do with her at all, but then she fucking _kissed him_  and now he couldn’t get her out of his mind.

There was something about that kiss that made sense to him, but Gale wasn’t sure what. It was comforting, it was nice _,_ it made him crave _more_. But he couldn’t kiss her again, because he didn’t want her as a soulmate, so he did something stupid. He kissed _other_  people.

Gale kissed Katniss before she left on the Victory Tour and was swiftly shut down. (“I don’t know how I feel about the soulmate thing,” Katniss had told him, “but Peeta’s mine, and I don’t have the option to even think about anyone else, Gale. Especially not after the Games.”) And he went straight to the slagheap after work. (“Never thought I’d see Gale Hawthorne back here,” Leevy said as he pulled her away from everyone else, desperate to taste someone other than Madge.) And he did everything he possibly could to stop thinking about the warmth of Madge’s lips.

It didn’t work. And it pissed him off. What didn’t help was the fact that she kept coming over for dinner. At least once a week. And Hazelle _always_ made him walk her home.

“I heard something at school today,” Madge said as they strolled back to her house. Gale had mastered the art of not talking to her, because Madge tried her damned hardest to get him to. But he listened and he kept his eyes elsewhere because looking at her made him hurt. “Leevy was gossiping with some of her friends, talking about how you’d been to the slagheap more often than not these past couple of weeks.” 

Gale stopped walking and turned to face her finding sadness in her eyes. “Madge,” he started, but she shook her head. 

“I don’t even know why I try,” she said. Madge crossed her arms tightly over her chest and looked away from him. “Maybe I’m an optimist, I don’t know. But I guess I thought you’d cave eventually. That you’d want to get to know me.” She started walking again, trying to distance herself from him. “Guess I was wrong,” she said, just loud enough for him to hear her.

“Madge,” Gale tried again, but she turned to him another time.

“I’m done,” she said. “It’s clear you don’t even want to look at me, so… I’m done. Okay?” Her voice was full of defeat and it made Gale’s chest hurt in a way he’d never felt before. “I’ll stop coming over, I’ll stop trying. You win.” She smiled sadly at him and blinked a few times. “Goodnight, Gale,” she said, but it sounded like goodbye.

He watched her walk home with a heavy heart.

And he didn’t understand it.

Gale didn’t want a soulmate. He didn’t want Madge Undersee to be his soulmate. But he had to admit she was determined. Determined and stubborn and positive and kind and annoyingly beautiful and it infuriated him. Why couldn’t he just hate her? Why didn’t she give up _forever_  ago and make it easier on the both of them? Why did she have to kiss him, for crying out loud!

And as promised, she didn’t come back. Gale would come home from the mines expecting to find Madge at his kitchen table working on homework with Rory or letting Posy braid her hair or listening to one of Vick’s stories, but she wasn’t there. Hazelle didn’t say anything to him but she slammed cabinets and gave Gale dish duty more often than before. Sometimes he heard her muttering about how stubborn he was and how stupid he was for not giving Madge a chance. It made him feel worse.

And past that, Gale couldn’t get Madge out of his head. She wasn’t around anymore but she was _suffocating_ him. It got to the point where he was thinking about her as he swung his pickaxe, where she was the first thought on his mind when he woke up.

So after the Victory Tour had come through and the parties at the Undersee’s mansion had stopped, Gale gathered as much of his stupid bravery as he could and went to her. It was late – he’d just gotten off work at the mines and his mother would probably wonder where he was since he didn’t check in at home first, but he needed to see her.

The maid answered the backdoor and frowned but still went off to get Madge. And when Madge arrived she looked less than pleased to see him. 

“What are you doing here?” she asked tiredly. Madge stepped outside and pulled the door shut with a sigh. “You wanted me to stop so I–”

“I can’t get you the fuck out of my head,” Gale stopped her. Madge blinked a few times, arching an eyebrow at him. “And it–it’s so fucking annoying, okay?” 

She nearly rolled her eyes. “That’s your problem.”

“Madge,” he nearly groaned. “It’s not that I don’t want to _know_  you, and it’s certainly not that I hate you, because I don’t. But I–every time I look at you I think of my stupid fucking tattoo and then I think of my dad and it–it _hurts_  and it… it just hurts.” 

“Gale,” she started quietly. “I–”

“I know you’re not the reason my father’s dead,” he forced out. “I _know_  that. I’m not a fucking idiot. But it’s the only thing I can think about when I look at you.” 

She stepped toward him and he didn’t move away, but he couldn’t look at her either. It was the reason he’d tried kissing other people, the reason he’d tried avoiding her. Gale _knew_  his father dying couldn’t have been stopped – that wasn’t how fate worked. But he blamed himself in some small way regardless, and in that blame was Madge.

“Then let me help you think of something else,” she whispered. Finally his eyes drifted over to her and Madge grabbed his shirt. She was closer than he anticipated but he couldn’t pull away. “Let me help you think of something else,” she repeated. 

Gale wanted to stop but he couldn’t. He wanted to walk away but he couldn’t. As she pressed herself on her toes Gale leaned down and met her halfway, sighing into her mouth as they kissed. It was better than the first time because this time he kissed her back. Gale was like a madman, needing her closer in absolutely every way possible and moving with her until she was pressed against the side of her home. His fingers tangled in her hair, he lost himself in her taste. Only when they both were breathless did he pull away and pin his forehead to hers, licking his lips in defeat.

Madge smiled weakly. “How was that?” she asked. 

“I’ve got you all covered in coal now,” he murmured, his eyes studying the dark marks across her skin. Madge rolled her eyes but her smile widened. “I don’t know how to do this,” Gale finally said. 

Madge reached up to cup his cheek. “Me neither,” she told him. He dipped down to kiss her again and she smiled as he pulled away. “Gale,” she said quietly. “I want to know you.” She brushed her thumb across his chin. “Because someone, or something thinks we’d go well together. And I want to know why.” 

It was hard for him to speak but eventually the words made their way up his throat. “Me too,” he admitted. Again she smiled. “Come back,” Gale said. “Tomorrow, or later this week. For dinner.” 

When she nodded he kissed her another time.

It wasn’t something he understood, not yet, and Gale was still hesitant. But he wanted more. He wanted more of Madge Undersee.


End file.
